Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest V
The schedule for the Fifth Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest, to be hosted in September at American University Washington College of Law, is now online. The event will spread over six days, beginning with focused capacity building workshops for Global Congress Members and building up to a large public international conference with plenary sessions webcast to the world. For more information, go to http://infojustice.org/globalcongress2018.
“Free Trade” Agreements Would Be More Fair with Fair Use at their Core
[Timothy Vollmer] … Copyright and other intellectual property rights will continue to be included in bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations, such as in the continuation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (now renamed “CPTPP” to stand for Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership), the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the talks on the Mercosur-EU trade agreement. A common theme across all these trade agreements is an increase in copyright protection, enforcement measures, and infringement penalties aimed to benefit incumbent industries and rights holders. What is usually missing? The necessary checks and balances that protect and defend the rights of users and the public interest to access, share, and re-use content in the public good. Click here for more.
Displacing the Dominance of the Three-Step Test: The Role of Global, Mandatory Fair Use
[Tanya Aplin and Lionel Bently] Abstract: Article 10(1) of the Berne Convention mandates a quotation exception that is broad in scope, one that is not limited by work, nor type of act, nor by purpose, and is only subject to the conditions in Article 10, namely, the work has been lawfully made available to the public, attribution, fair practice, and proportionality. We call this “global, mandatory fair use”. This overlooked norm in international copyright law is unaffected by and distinct from the three-step test and, as such, potentially dislodges its dominance. Click here for more.
See also: Tanya Aplin and Lionel Bently. Whatever Became of Global Mandatory Fair Use? A Case Study in Dysfunctional Pluralism. Link.
Fair Use Week 2018: Fair Use Promotes Creation of New Knowledge
[Krista Cox] Happy Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week 2018! I wanted to share ARL’s 2018 infographic for Fair Use Week: Fair Use Promotes Creation of New Knowledge. You can also check out our previous fair use infographics here. There’s tons of great resources and a list of some of this week’s events on the Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week website: http://fairuseweek.org/
Don’t Be Afraid of Compulsory Licenses Despite US Threats: Special 301 Reports 1998-2017 – Listing Concerns But Taking Little Action
[Brook Baker] For the past 20 years in its annual Special 301 Reports, the US has consistently criticized countries that do not have compulsory licensing standards that Big Pharma likes, that threaten to issue compulsory licenses, or that have actually had the temerity to issue a compulsory license… Despite its many complaints, veiled threats, and backroom maneuvers against compulsory licenses, the USTR’s bark has been much, much louder than its bite. Click here for more.
Intellectual Property Before the European Court of Human Rights
[Christophe Geiger and Elena Izyumenko] In the past years, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR, or Strasbourg Court), Europe’s principal human rights watchdog, has played an ever larger role in the resolution of intellectual property (IP) disputes. The ECtHR’s engagement in IP adjudication has already influenced national judges, who increasingly have recourse to human rights to solve cases between private parties, thus calling for closer scrutiny of the Court’s practice on this matter. The present chapter provides the first comprehensive overview of the ECtHR case law on IP for the period since the Court’s inception (in January 1959) until today (February 2018). Click here for more.
18 Members of U.S. House of Representatives Call for Compulsory License on Patents for HCV Treatments
[Knowledge Ecology International] Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA-17) was joined by 17 other members of Congress in calling upon Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to issue a compulsory license on patents for medications to treat hepatitis C, by exercising 28 U.S.C. § 1498 to expand access to treatment…. The members cite the high prices of HCV medication, including Gilead’s Harvoni and AbbVie’s Mavyret, as causing most reimbursement entities to constrict reimbursement to only those patients with the most severe liver damage, which often leads to chronic liver disease. Click here for more on keionline.org.
Delhi Declaration on Open Access
[Open Access India] The South Asian region, home to 24% of the world’s population faces major challenges such as hunger, poverty and inequality. These challenges become the collective responsibility of scholars and experts in research universities across the country. Consequently, it becomes imperative that research institutes share scientific research outputs and accelerate scientific research. The Open Access movement which aims for making all ‘publicly funded research outcomes publicly available for the public good’ is gaining momentum. Click here for the full Declaration.
European Educators Ask for a Better Copyright
[Electronic Information for Libraries] EIFL joins 53 organizations representing teachers, students, vocational trainers, researchers, scientists, librarians, archivists and museum professionals calling on European legislators for a copyright framework that properly facilitates modern, innovative education in Europe. The joint letter, sent to members of the European Parliament by COMMUNIA, an international association that advocates for copyright reform in education, highlights four key problems with the current proposal for a Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (DSM). Click here for more.
